]]>http://www.vg247.com/2014/10/31/playstation-plus-ps3-ps4/feed/0Sony financials: game business loses $8 million, projections slashed 40%http://www.vg247.com/2013/10/31/sony-financials-game-business-loses-8-million-projections-slashed/
http://www.vg247.com/2013/10/31/sony-financials-game-business-loses-8-million-projections-slashed/#commentsThu, 31 Oct 2013 10:29:54 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=422628Sony has posted its latest quarterly and half-year financial report, revealing that its game arm lost ¥0.8 billion / $8 million for the period. As such, the company has lopped 40% off its full-year projections.

The report was posted here, and covers the three-month period ended September 31, 2013.

The quarterly figures flag the game division’s ¥0.8 billion ($8 million) operating loss, compared to its ¥2.4 billion profit for the same period last year. However, sales were up 5.1% year-on-year at ¥155.7 billion compared to last year’s ¥148.2 billion.

However, the 5.1% increase transforms into a 14% decrease when the tumbling value of the Yen becomes stacked against the Dollar and Euro.

The report says of the $8 million loss, “The decrease in sales on a constant currency basis was primarily due to a decrease in unit sales of PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and PSP hardware, partially offset by increased PS3 software unit sales compared to the same quarter of the previous fiscal year.

“This year-on-year decline was primarily due to the impact of of a strategic price reduction for the PlayStation Vita and the unfavourable impact of foreign exchange rates, partially off-set by the above mentioned increase in software unit sales.”

The impact of PlayStation 4′s R&D, marketing and production cost were mentioned but no figures were disclosed. The report reads, “In the Game segment, operating loss significantly increased year-on-year primarily due to an increase in research and development expenses related to the upcoming introduction of the PlayStation 4 and the impact of a strategic price reduction for the PS Vita.”

Sony’s disclosed its half-year figures further on in the report. The game division’s sales for the period were up 2.8% at ¥273.6 billion, compared to ¥266.1 billion year-on-year.

However, it seems that the company is paring back the rest of its operations due to a few shortcomings at Sony Pictures and other divisions. As a result, the company’s ¥50 billion net profit forecast has been hacked 40% to ¥30 billion.

What do you make of the figures above? Can PS4 turn things around? Let us know below.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2013/10/31/sony-financials-game-business-loses-8-million-projections-slashed/feed/52Sony says it needs to do “a better job in promoting” Vita, PS3 “still has a long life”http://www.vg247.com/2013/02/08/sony-says-it-needs-to-do-a-better-job-in-promoting-vita-ps3-still-has-a-long-life/
http://www.vg247.com/2013/02/08/sony-says-it-needs-to-do-a-better-job-in-promoting-vita-ps3-still-has-a-long-life/#commentsFri, 08 Feb 2013 17:29:09 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=338403Sony CFO Masaru Kato told investors during a call discussing the firm’s Q3 2012 results that it needs to do “a better job in promoting” Vita.

The executive said one of the ways to improve profitability for the handheld is to attract more third-party developers interested in creating “more attractive software.”

“In terms of profitability, we have to do a better job in promoting the PlayStation Vita mobile product,” said Kato. “How do we do that? Well, gaming business software is the name of the game. So as a fundamental measure, we are putting all — a lot of resources, not just first party, but also asking third parties to put out more attractive software.

“That’s the basics. The other thing, well, marketing, pricing of the product, et cetera, I cannot talk about pricing of this platform, but those are the things that we are looking into to improve our profitability in the mobile handheld gaming business.”

Kato also touched on the longevity of PS3, which he feels in its sixth year “still has a long life” and Sony is no longer losing money on the system.

“There are discussions about the next platform, I cannot dwell on that at all at the moment,” he said. “But in any case, we have a lot of business in PS3. Now to give you an indication of how, well, stable this business is, although we have reduced forecast on many of our product lines from television, digital still cameras and, et cetera, but mobile phones and home game devices, we have not changed the forecast on these for this fiscal year.

“I hope will give an indication of our confidence in this platform going forward.”

Sony is expected to reveal the next PlayStation console during an event in New York City week after next.

CVG reports – by way of Siliconera – that Sony originally forecast that it would shift 16 million combined units of both PS Vita and PSP – ten for Vita, six for PSP – worldwide.

However, the company then slashed that particular projection down to just 12 million units with no revised breakdown across PS Vita and PSP.

Following today’s forecast that number sits at just 10 million units combined by March 31st, 2013. The drop from 16 million appears to be growing more significant by the day.

PS3 and PS2 forecast numbers remain unchanged at 16 million sold for the year, suggesting that all is well in the home console camp, but software sales across the brand have dropped by 15.8% on last year’s figures.

All of this has resulted in a financial loss of 15.5 billion yen/$198 million. While the number is large, it is an improvement on last year’s 27.0 billion yen loss, suggesting that uptake has improved and that finances have began to pick up momentum now that PS3 no longer sells at a loss.

What’s your take on the stats? Let us know below.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/11/01/sony-q2-financial-forecast-dropped-as-game-ps-vita-sales-slump/feed/22Sony: NGP still on track for 2011, full PSN restoration still planned for end of Mayhttp://www.vg247.com/2011/05/26/sony-ngp-still-on-track-for-2011-full-psn-restoration-still-planned-for-end-of-may/
http://www.vg247.com/2011/05/26/sony-ngp-still-on-track-for-2011-full-psn-restoration-still-planned-for-end-of-may/#commentsThu, 26 May 2011 13:19:17 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=173549Sony has said NGP is still on track for release this year in case you had any doubts.

During its earnings briefing today, the firm said it was “progressing with preparations towards a release at the end of the year.”

Sony has always said its next handheld would be released by the end of 2011, but have yet to mention just where it will be released first, and whether all regions will get it this year or not.

Hopefully we’ll know more once E3 is done and dusted.

Also of note, during its financial briefing the firm confirmed once again that it plans on a full restoration of PSN services by the end of the month. However, should it miss the planned target it will only be by a few days.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2011/05/26/sony-ngp-still-on-track-for-2011-full-psn-restoration-still-planned-for-end-of-may/feed/18Sony: PSN intrusion will cost £106 millionhttp://www.vg247.com/2011/05/23/sony-psn-intrusion-will-cost-106-million/
http://www.vg247.com/2011/05/23/sony-psn-intrusion-will-cost-106-million/#commentsMon, 23 May 2011 11:07:03 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=172588Sony has said the recent external intrusion of PlayStation Network will set the company back about ¥14 billion (£106 million/$171 million).

“Based on information currently available to Sony, our currently known costs associated with the unauthorized network access are estimated to be approximately 14 billion yen in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012,” it said.

The company as a whole expects a massive net loss of ¥260 billion (£1.9 billion/$3.1 billion).

The intrusion of PSN and Qriocity took place after the financial year, with the downtime beginning on April 19, but the massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan from March will have played some part in the loss, according to Sony, with ¥17 billion (£128 million/$207 million) taken from operating profits for the financial year.

PSN returned online earlier this month, including online play and PlayStation Home. PlayStation Store, however, has remained down, but a return is rumoured for tomorrow.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2011/05/23/sony-psn-intrusion-will-cost-106-million/feed/17Sony: PS3 is upgradeable to 3D, company will return to profit in 2011http://www.vg247.com/2009/11/19/sony-ps3-is-upgradeable-to-3d-company-will-return-to-profit-in-2011/
http://www.vg247.com/2009/11/19/sony-ps3-is-upgradeable-to-3d-company-will-return-to-profit-in-2011/#commentsThu, 19 Nov 2009 17:00:09 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=68164

During a presentation to investors, Sony revealed that all PS3 systems are upgradeable to stereoscopic 3D via firmware updates, and the company plans to integrate 3D through Blu-ray and HDTV sets as well.

The company’s goal is to “lead the 3D market” and offer 3D tools to developers that wish to create games with three-dimensional play.

Plans to install 3,000 Sony 3D theater projectors in cinemas the end of the year is another part of the plan, which when combined the aforementioned plan, the company believes it will achieve profitability by March 2011, according to CEO Howard Stringer.

Sony’s projecting a $1 billion (¥95 billion) loss for its current fiscal year, ending March 2010, but Howard says that current money-saving plans are paying off.

“Our work is already bearing fruit,” he said before adding that the company still has “more work to do”.

Howard also revealed that Sony is ahead of its planned restructuring schedule of saving $5.6 billion (¥500 billion) in costs, part of which was a direct result of the 12 percent reduction of its total workforce (19,500 jobs) over the last year.

Yesterday, Sony announced that it has seen a 70 percent growth in sales for PS3 when compared to October 2008, making it “the only console to experience significant growth year over year”.

Note that both quarters so far this financial year include losses from Sony’s Vaio business. Figures for the full fiscal years are losses purely from gaming. Prior to Q1 this year, the division was called “Game”: it’s now known as the “Networked Products & Services” division.

It’s also worth noting the following. These are the losses Microsoft’s Xbox division suffered during the first Xbox’s release. As you can see, they’re not as heavy as those currently being incurred by Sony:

FY 2002: -$1,135,000,000

FY 2003: -$1,191,000,000

FY 2004: -$1,337,000,000

FY 2005: -$539,000,000

Total loss: $4,202,000,000

Thanks, Psychotext. You can read a full breakdown of where the platform holders stand financially in this NeoGAF post.